Mediocre Runners

I did a fairly decent job hitting CF workouts last week, however I completely slept (literally slept in) on CFE workouts.  Soooo, I’ll be doing three this week for punishment.  And I’m doing CFE workouts starting BEFORE 5am!  That’ll teach me, huh?  Ok, here’s the upcoming schedule:

CF: Mon Tues Thurs Fri Sat

CFE: Mon Thurs Sat

In addition to the 8 workouts, I’ll start Zoning.  Crossfit subscribes to it, so I’ll keep you posted on how it goes for me over the next 30 days.  I figure I’ll give it a shot and see how my CF improves and how my overall body feels/looks.  The good news is you do eat carbs, which Sam Adams Octoberfest is part of.  Mmm….I love this time of year!  Well because I am mediocre, I’ll be eating 18 blocks.  Basically, a “block” is an easier unit of measurement for food.  So, 7 grams of protein = 1 block, 9 grams of carbs = 1 block, and 1.5 grams of fat = 1 block.  The idea is to eat equal blocks for every meal, which will essentially give you a 30/40/30 (P/C/F) breakdown in your daily nutrition.  I’ll try to eat 5 blocks per meal with a couple snacks throughout the day thrown in there to get my 18.  It’s kind of a pain weighing and measuring food, but I think it’ll pay off in the end.  Stay tuned!

It was a pretty good week of working out and crossfitting.  The week started on Labor Day with a free crossfit session at Diesel.  It was one of the athletes last day before heading to the Marines, so the WOD was a doosey!

• 15 reps BB squat clean (155/ 100#)
• 30 Toes to bar
• 30 Box jumps (24/20″)
• 15 Handstand Push-Ups
• 30 Pistols (15 Left, then 15 Right)
• 30 Double Unders
• 15 reps BB Thruster (135/ 95#)
• 30 Pullups
• 30 Burpees
• 300′ OH Walking lunge (45/25# plate)

I had to scale the squat cleans (115#), HSPU (pike), thrusters (95#), and pistols (used wall), which all felt very appropriate.  Total time was 44:09, def a doosey!

I HAD to take Tuesday off after that WOD.  So my next workout was Wednesday; strength day.  The WOD was Push Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps.  We did this exact same WOD on July 28, so not too long ago where I maxed at 120#.  I knew I had to beat it and my lbs looked like this:  95,105,110,115,115,120,125!  Overall, not too shabby, plus I was still VERY sore from Monday.

Thursday’s WOD I was really looking forward to after it was posted late Wednesday night.  It consisted of:

4 rounds for time:  400m Run 500m Row.

Diesel only has 2 Concept2 rowers currently, and with 6 people, there is a bit of a bottleneck.  So we did the first ever team WOD at Diesel!  What it entailed was two 3-person teams, everyone does the run, and as a team we row 1500m.  A couple rules first tho.  Everyone on the team starts the run together (but can finish on their own), you can’t begin rowing until each team member is finished with the run.  My team consisted of one guy and one girl along with me.  As the alphas, the 2 guys rowed closer to 550-650m per round.  However, because of the team row, it allowed for more rest time which certainly helped with each 400m run.  Total time for my team was 33:49.  My goal for the workout individually was sub 16 minutes.  I’ll leave that for another day tho.

Pat rowing

I was really hoping to take Friday off, but after checking workout I couldn’t pass it up.

• 50 Sit-ups
• 21 Pull-ups
• 40 Sit-ups
• 18 Pull-ups
• 30 Sit-ups
• 15 Pull-ups
• 20 Sit-ups
• 12 Pull-ups
• 10 Sit-ups
• 9 Pull-ups

Since pull-ups are my new favorite exercise, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to knock out 75 (with 150 situps)!  So I raced home from work, changed, and got to Diesel just in time.  I knocked this WOD out in 14:29 as Rx’d!  It’s a great feeling knowing that you didn’t have to scale a difficult WOD.  As I continue to crossfit, I’ll scale less and less WODs!

Alright, you’re all caught up now.  Until next time…

Here’s what I’m shooting for for Labor Day week.

M, Tu, Th, F – CrossFit

Tu, Th, Sat – CF Endurance supplemental

This schedule gives me 2 days of complete rest, 2 double-ups, 2 Dedicated CF workouts, and 1 day of dedicated CFE.  Brutal, but it’s go time!

Jess is running the Rock ‘N Roll half marathon today in Virginia Beach.  Good luck Jess!  We here a MR are wishing you well.

In an effort to get back on track, I’ll post this morning’s WOD and breakfast.  This morning’s WOD was Jackie which consists of

• 1000 meter row
• 45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
• 30 pull-ups

Since I used up my 3x/week CF classes at Crossfit Diesel, I too had to hit up the globo-gym.  This makes times interesting because I not only had to find where to find a barbell for thrusters, but had to wait while some donk finished up on the chest machine so I could do pull-ups.  The first time I did Jackie (on July 17), I finished in 11:28 but used the red assist (lowest assist) band for pull-ups.  Today I finished in 13:33, almost 2 minutes slower, BUUUUT I did it as Rx’d!!!  I love that I can do pull-ups now.  Just a few days ago, I did 15 in a row during the warm-up.  I feel I could have done a few more, but the warm-up only called for 15.

For breakfast, I stopped by our new favorite grocery store and bought some eggs, fresh salsa (only 5 calories!!), and a couple avocados.  I cooked up the eggs with some EVO, mashed up the avocado, and threw some salsa in the mix.  Top it off with a glass of chocolate milk.  Mmm…it was really good, filling, and only 470 calories for everything.  Remember, chocolate milk is the new sports drink!

I’ll top this off this evening with a CFE WOD.  Not sure what I’ll do, but I’m sure it’ll kick my butt!

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

Pretty well said.  I think that’s about what we here at MR would like to do?  But how can we adapt this motto to fit MR even more?

Are we cool here at MR?  Well of course not!  What about crossfit?  Is that cool?  Well don’t take our word for it, take a look at what a very popular celebrity thinks.  I know I voted for her, twice!

Well today’s WOD was Hanging Power Cleans 5-5-5-5-5, which means you do 5 sets of 5 reps at your max.  Usually you build up to your absolute max.  This was eerily similar to the WOD from July 20 where I started with 85# and did a complete set of 3 at 115#.  Today’s aim was to at least tie that if not beat it.  Now in my experience, 3 weeks isn’t a lot of time between workouts to notice a significant improvement but I was willing to give it a shot.  So today I started at 85# and went up by 10s (85-95-105-115).  The last set I decided to go for it, but in a mediocre fashion.  I got 120 up 3 times, so not enough for a complete set, however this would have been good for July 20.  Soooo, this is a round about way of saying I’m improving.  Granted in a mediocre fashion.

Truer words haven’t been said.  Today’s WOD was a tough one called 500 or “Filthy Fifty,” which involves:

• 50 Box jump (24″m, 20″w)
• 50 Jumping pull-ups
• 50 Kettlebell swings (35#m, 25#w)
• Walking Lunge, 50 steps
• 50 Knees to elbows
• 50 Push press (44#m, 33#w)
• 50 Back extensions
• 50 Wall ball shots (20#m 15#w)
• 50 Burpees (yay burpees!)
• 50 Double unders

I will say I’ve been sick the last few days.  So much so that I missed work on Thursday.  I haven’t worked out since Tuesday because of it.  So the Filthy Fifty was a perfect debut to bounce back, except I still feel like someone with the plague.  I knew it was going to be a long one going in, but I finished in just over 40 min.  I fought off pukey a couple times during the burpees (yay burpees!).  I had to sub high knee raises (note: I did not say scale) for double unders because I am mediocre and not coordinated enough yet.  I’ll get there.  All-in-all it sucked.  I really think I could have finished around the 35 min mark, but I’m sick.  And it was my first day back in 4 days.  And I was groggy from the nyquil.  And I haven’t been sleeping well.  And I haven’t been eating a lot or well.  Excuses are what makes us….mediocre!

Tabata Hell that is.  Ok I did workout at Diesel on Monday and Tuesday.  Those WODs were great:

Deadlift 15 (#225-M, #165-W)
Ropeclimb 5
Deadlift 12
Ropeclimb 4
Deadlift 9
Ropeclimb 3
Deadlift 6
Ropeclimb 2
Deadlift 3
Ropeclimb 1

I deadlifted #170, scaled the rope climb, and finished in 17:45.

Tuesday’s WOD:

Push Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps. I had a first set of 85 and maxed out at 120 on the last set.  I did try and 8th set at 125 but could only get 1 out.  Ah well…next time right.  I’m not stud.  I know my place.

Ok for today’s WOD was Tabata Hell.  Tabata intervals are 8 rounds of 20 sec all out followed by 10 sec of rest.  The “all out” is what really gets you, esp around set 5-7.  Here’s how Tabata Hell played out (with the number of reps for each set listed after):

• Squats (rest at bottom): 19 20 20 19 19 18 18 18
• Push-ups (rest locked out at top for half of sets): 16 10 9 8 6 8 8 8
• Med Ball Cleans @ 18#: 11 12 11 11 11 11 11 12
• Sit-up: 18 16 16 16 15 14 15 16
• KB Swing @ 45#: 12 8 8 8 8 8 7 7

I couldn’t have been more dead at the end of this.  I will say my very first CF WOD at Diesel, in the beginning of May, was tabata squats where I did 15/17 (low/high), but I did not do active rest nor could I move after the 8th set.  CF must be doing something!  Ok, I think I’ll go lay down now.